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The telling tale of building permits ■ City
Prince George numbers edging back up to pre-2008 levels Allan Wishart allanw@pgfreepress.com
Sometimes the easy numbers don’t tell the whole story. That’s the case when looking at the monthly building and development permit report given to city council. Looking at the June and July reports for this year is a case in point. The report for June 2012 showed the year-to-date building permits at $79.6 million, ahead of the same period for 2010 ($54.2 million) and 2011 ($35 million). In the report for July, 2010 ($105.3 million) had jumped ahead of 2012 ($89.4 million) and 2011 ($51.9 million) had closed the gap. So was July this year a bad year for the local construction industry? No, it was a question of a couple of big projects coming on line the two previous Julys. In July 2010, the $40-million building permit for the new cancer centre came on line, while in July 2011, the $11-million permit for Kordyban Lodge came in. “The bigger projects will have an impact on the numbers, but the total value of construction is still relevant,” said Donald Parent, the city’s manager of subdivision, infrastructure and building inspection. “It shows the investment being made in the community.”
One area he suggests looking at to see how much development is taking place is in single-family detached homes (SFD), especially the new permits. “Those are the houses that are being built, and they show how the community is being seen.” So far this year, there have been 72 news SFD building permits issued, compared with 86 to the same date in 2010 and 63 in 2011. While the numbers appear to be picking up for Prince George, Parent says it isn’t as high as he’s seen it. “2007 was the busiest year we had in the development department. That whole A lla n W ISHA RT/ Fre e Pre s s period of 2005, 2006 and Construction currently underway at the Burger King on Highway 16 is proceeding under 2007 was busy. Then came a building permit taken out in June. the credit crunch and things mit. show up in the numbers. slowed down everywhere. “There may be circumstances where “Not every building permit requires a “It does look like we’re starting to get development permit,” Parent says. “The someone gets a development permit, back to those levels.” Parent also made clear the difference Official Community Plan spells out what but then, maybe because of finances, is between building permits and devel- triggers the need for a development per- unable to get the building permit. “When they get the building permit, opment permits. Significant permits in mit.” As well, he says, not every develop- things are more likely to actually hapeither group are listed on the report to council, but only the building permits ment permit ends up as a building per- pen.”